IDNO

LS.109175.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Warramunga.
Tooth-Knocking-Out Ceremony of a girl. Forcing the gum back."

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Cental Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramunga

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Northern Tribes of Central Australia fieldwork by Baldwin Spencer, Walter and Gillen, Francis James [March 1901 - March 1902]

Date

March 1901 - March 1902

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Similar image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 593, fig. 169 with the following caption:
"Tooth-knocking-out ceremonies. women drinking water. Warramunga tribe." [WV 9/2/2009]

Expedition: Baldwin Spencer and Gillen spent one year from March 1901 to March 1902 in a traverse from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then across, eastwards to Borraloola at the mouth of the Macarthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. (Baldwin Spencer, W., 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 1, p. xvi). [WV 10/2/2009]

Cultural Group: Baldwin Spencer and Gillen describe the Waramanga [Warramunga] nation as including the Warramunga, Worgaia, Tjingilli, Umbaia, Bingongina, Walpari, Wulmala, and Gnanji tribes. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 75). [WV 10/2/2009]

Context: the tooth knocking out ceremony for women is described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"Amongst the Warramunga it is comparatively seldom that teeth are knocked out in the case of the men, though women are frequently met with who have either one or two out. Any elder woman of any relationship may operate on young women and girls, and ay elder man on younger men and boys, for the operation is conducted at any period between early youth and middle age. As a general rule it takes place towards the close of the wet season, when the water-holes are full, and it is always conducted on the banks of one of these. The same ceremony is enacted in the case of both men and women, ... The women to the number of forty or fifty, together with a considerable number of children, gathered together beside a water-hole. The usual track to the water-hole led about a hundred yards away from the ground on which the men were them preparing for a sacred ceremony, and, so as to make perfectly certain that they could not see anything of what was taking place, the women and children were ordered to make a detour of half a mile. When they arrived at the water-hole two or three fires were lighted, and then, one after the other, the girls who were to be operated on walked into the water till it reached close up to their breasts. each one then scooped up water with her hand, and after drinking this and allowing it to remain in her mouth for a short time, she spat it out in all directions (Fig. 169). Then she splashed water over herself, taking care to thoroughly wet the crown of her head (Fig. 170). When this was over she came out of the water and at once lay down on the sandy bank with her head in a small hole. One woman pressed back the gums, and, just as in the Kaitish tribe, the tooth was knocked out by another woman, who applied the bluntly pointed end of a short stick to it and then gave one or two smart blows with a stone (Fig. 171). As soon as the tooth was out, hot gum leaves were applied to the mouth to relieve the pain, the natives also saying that the object of filling the mouth with water immediately before the operation is to numb the gums.
The woman who has knocked out the girl’s tooth takes it back to her camp, pounds it up, and places the remains in a small piece of flesh, which has then to be eaten by the girl’s mother." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 592-593). [WV 9/2/2009]